1. Field of Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to systems, and more particularly, to systems with one or more internal processors, such as arithmetic logic units.
2. Description of Related Art
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present invention, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light and not as admissions of prior art.
Electronic systems typically include one or more processors, which may retrieve and execute instructions, and output the results of the executed instruction, such as to store the results to a suitable location. A processor generally includes arithmetic logic unit (ALU) circuitry, which is capable of executing instructions such as arithmetic and logic operations on one or more operands. For example, the ALU circuitry may add, subtract, multiply, or divide one operand from another, or may subject one or more operands to logic operations, such as AND, OR, XOR, and NOT logic functions. The various arithmetic and logic operations may have different degrees of complexity. For example, some operations may be executed by inputting the operand(s) through the ALU circuitry in one cycle, while other operations may utilize multiple clock cycles.
A number of components in the electronic system may be involved in directing a set of instructions to the ALU for execution. For example, the instructions and any corresponding data (e.g., the operands on which the operations will be executed) may be generated by a controller, or some other suitable processor in the electronic system. As the time or number of clock cycles required for the execution of a set of instructions may vary depending on the type of operation, the instructions and data may be written to a memory device, for example, a memory array and/or buffer, before the ALU receives and executes the instructions. After the ALU executes the instructions, the intermediate or final results of the operations may also be stored in a buffer before being copied back to an array. The steps of writing, reading, buffering, executing instructions, and storing results may occur substantially simultaneously on different instructions, or different parts of an instruction. This parallel processing, referred to as “pipelining,” may improve processing performance in the electronic system.